New Review Tuesday: The Candidates Face Off

Are you sick of the mudslinging in this election cycle?

Then you might want to take a look at the picture books that have been released about each candidate, which offer decidedly more optimistic views of John McCain and Barack Obama than what you hear in television commercials.

I attended a reading of Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope, at which Nikki Grimes revealed that she wrote the book in three weeks! Yowsers. Pretty impressive, considering that her strong poetic voice lends a great deal to Obama’s story, here seen through the eyes of a young boy growing up in the Bronx.

As one might expect from the title, Grimes occasionally dips into the overly sentimental, but her text (along with Bryan Collier’s powerful illustrations) provides a solid introduction to the would-be pres for kids in grades K through 3.

Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to hear Meghan McCain read My Dad, John McCain, so no insider secrets there. But it’s also suitable for the primary classroom, detailing Senator McCain’s service and devotion to his country, as well as to his family. Ms. McCain falls into some of the same traps as Grimes and Collier, sometimes veering towards the mushy gushy, but perhaps both books lend the opportunity to talk about the author’s perspective and aim in writing the story.